The name "Shuma Gorath" is first used in a "Kull" short story "The Curse of the Golden Skull," which was unpublished until 1967, years after the author's death. In it, a dying magician named Rotath invokes the "iron-bound books of Shuma Gorath" in a curse against humanity.

Its first comic-book appearance was as an adversary for Doctor Strange in the pages of Marvel Premiere #3-9 (July 1972-July 1973) This re-imagining of the character resembled a giant purple eye with tentacles. In most subsequent appearances the color of the creature was changed from purple to green. Like Cthulhu, it was a giant tentacled creature which evoked terrible dread and was worshipped in time immemorial and long ago locked away from our plane of existence.